The present invention relates to a red leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) variety designated Red Bluff. All publications cited in this application are herein incorporated by reference.
Practically speaking, all cultivated forms of lettuce belong to the highly polymorphic species Lactuca sativa that is grown for its edible head and leaves. Lactuca sativa is in the Cichoreae tribe of the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. Lettuce is related to chicory, sunflower, aster, dandelion, artichoke, and chrysanthemum. Sativa is one of about 300 species in the genus Lactuca. There are seven different morphological types of lettuce. The crisphead group includes the iceberg and batavian types. Iceberg lettuce has a large, firm head with a crisp texture and a white or creamy yellow interior. The batavian lettuce predates the iceberg type and has a smaller and less firm head. The butterhead group has a small, soft head with an almost oily texture. The romaine, also known as cos lettuce, has elongated upright leaves forming a loose, loaf-shaped head and the outer leaves are usually dark green. Leaf lettuce comes in many varieties, none of which form a head, and include the green oak leaf variety. Latin lettuce looks like a cross between romaine and butterhead. Stem lettuce has long, narrow leaves and thick, edible stems. Oilseed lettuce is a type grown for its large seeds that are pressed to obtain oil. Latin lettuce, stem lettuce, and oilseed lettuce are seldom seen in the United States.
There is an ongoing need for improved lettuce varieties. Presently, there are over a thousand known lettuce cultivars. As a crop, lettuce is grown commercially wherever environmental conditions permit the production of an economically viable yield. Lettuce is the World's most popular salad.
The goal of lettuce plant breeding is to develop new, unique, and superior lettuce cultivars. The breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by repeated selfing and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. The breeder can theoretically generate billions of different genetic combinations via crossing, selfing, and mutations. The breeder has no direct control at the cellular level. Therefore, two breeders will never develop the same line, or even very similar lines, having the same lettuce traits. Each year, the plant breeder selects the germplasm to advance to the next generation. This germplasm is grown under different geographical, climatic, and soil conditions, and further selections are then made during, and at the end of, the growing season. The cultivars that are developed are unpredictable. A breeder of ordinary skill in the art cannot predict the final resulting lines he develops, except possibly in a very gross and general fashion. The same breeder cannot produce the same line twice by using the exact same original parents and the same selection techniques.
The development of commercial lettuce cultivars requires the development of lettuce varieties, the crossing of these varieties, and the evaluation of the crosses. Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection breeding methods are used to develop cultivars from breeding populations. Breeding programs combine desirable traits from two or more varieties or various broad-based sources into breeding pools from which cultivars are developed by selfing and selection of desired phenotypes. The new cultivars are crossed with other varieties and the hybrids from these crosses are evaluated to determine which have commercial potential.
Backcross breeding has been used to transfer genes for a simply inherited, highly heritable trait into a desirable homozygous cultivar or line that is the recurrent parent. The source of the trait to be transferred is called the donor parent. The resulting plant is expected to have the attributes of the recurrent parent (e.g., cultivar) and the desirable trait transferred from the donor parent. After the initial cross, individuals possessing the phenotype of the donor parent are selected and repeatedly crossed (backcrossed) to the recurrent parent. The resulting plant is expected to have the attributes of the recurrent parent (e.g., cultivar) and the desirable trait transferred from the donor parent.
Descriptions of other breeding methods that are commonly used for different traits and crops can be found in one of several reference books (e.g., Principles of Plant Breeding, John Wiley and Son, pp. 115-161 (1960); Allard (1960); Simmonds (1979); Sneep, et al. (1979); Fehr (1987); “Carrots and Related Vegetable Umbelliferae,” Rubatzky, V. E., et al. (1999).
Proper testing should detect any major faults and establish the level of superiority or improvement over current cultivars. In addition to showing superior performance, there must be a demand for a new cultivar that is compatible with industry standards or which creates a new market. The introduction of a new cultivar will incur additional costs to the seed producer, the grower, processor and consumer for special advertising and marketing, altered seed and commercial production practices, and new product utilization. The testing preceding release of a new cultivar should take into consideration research and development costs, as well as technical superiority of the final cultivar. For seed-propagated cultivars, it must be feasible to produce seed easily and economically.
Lettuce in general, and leaf lettuce in particular, is an important and valuable vegetable crop. Thus, a continuing goal of lettuce plant breeders is to develop stable, high yielding lettuce cultivars that are agronomically sound. To accomplish this goal, the lettuce breeder must select and develop lettuce plants with traits that result in superior cultivars.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.